As medical technologies advance, our average life becomes increasingly longer, and ageing population tends to be increased in a substantially large percentage. To cope with the medical technology and social security system caused by the ageing population, medical teams, academic circles and related manufacturers conduct research and development, and promote remote homecare and medical service to establish a remote healthcare network, so as to overcome the healthcare problems of elderly people and improve the situation of having insufficient medical resources in remote areas.
In general, the so-called “remote homecare” or “remote medical service” installs a physiological parameter detecting instrument on a patient's body for detecting the patient's physiological signal (including blood pressure, heartbeat, blood sugar level and related information) and transmitting the same to a remote healthcare center via the Internet or a telephone network, such that the patient's family or an attending doctor can know about the patient's physiological conditions, and compile and save the patient's physiological parameter history data to determine the patient's condition in order to provide timely homecare or medical service when the patient is unwell or in a critical condition. An immediate handling method can be informed through the physiological parameter detecting instrument, or an immediate notice or advice can be delivered to a medical professional for medical helps. Thus, the remote homecare or remote medical service can overcome the limitations of time and space by shifting the medical treatment activities originally conducted in hospitals or clinics to the patient's home, and also can improve the patient's safety as well.
To achieve the aforementioned purposes and further promote the remote homecare or remote medical service, related manufacturers, hospitals and clinics continuously conduct researches for improvements and look for feasible solutions. However, the remote homecare or remote medical service still has many problems till now. Firstly, most physiological parameter detecting instruments can just return a patient's physiological parameters directly, so that the medical professionals of the healthcare center can base on the physiological parameter for analyses, or combine several physiological parameters to determine the patient's physiological conditions. Therefore, the quality and professionalism of the medical professionals are important factors for determining a patient's current physical condition accurately. In addition, the numeric value of a physiological parameter varies with the patient's mood, environment, weather or daily activity. If the numeric value of the patient's physiological parameter has not exceeded a critical value predetermined by medical professionals, then the medical professional generally will assume that the numeric value of the physiological parameter falls within a normal range, and neglect whether or not the patient really feels a certain uncomfortable pathological symptom (such as dizziness, breathing difficulty and cold limbs, etc), and usually will result in missing the chance of an immediate treatment.
To overcome the aforementioned problems, some manufacturers build a status list containing several predetermined pathological symptoms in a physiological parameter detecting instrument, and the status list is provided for a patient to select the current physical conditions that the patient feels and transmits the status list to a healthcare center through the physiological parameter detecting instrument. Since a disease (such as heart disease) generally causes several pathological symptoms (such as heart throb, dizziness, breathing difficulty, cold limbs, chest pain, abnormal heart rhythm, and backache, etc), therefore there will be a large number of options or even pages in the status list. If a patient feels unwell, the patient needs to select a number of options listed in the status list and matched with the options that the patient feels. However, the patient is generally in a poor physical condition and emotionally tense, and thus it is difficult and inconvenient for the patient to concentrate on the selection from so many options. As a result, the time for returning the status list to the healthcare center will be delayed, and the patient cannot get help immediately or may even miss the prime time for an emergency treatment. Furthermore, different pathological symptoms incurred by a disease generally require different medicines or medical instruments or tools for the treatment. If a patient feels that there are so many options, the patient may hesitate to select the options or select a wrong option by mistake, and a medical professional may come to the site without appropriate medicines or medical tools. As a result, the rescue time may be delayed, and the patient's safety may be affected severely.
Therefore, it is an important subject for medical equipment manufacturers, hospitals and clinics to design a novel handling procedure and establish an appropriate number of options of pathological symptoms, so that patients can quickly select an option corresponding to the current physical condition that the patient feels, so as to reduce the time for medical professionals to know about the patient's self-perceived information and current physiological parameters, provide necessary medical assistance, prepare for appropriate medical tools, and improve the professionalism of the medical professionals.